by Brian de Lore
Published 11th June, 2026
The thoroughbred business has been in a slow state of decline worldwide for a couple of decades now, but here in New Zealand, we are different. We are now leading the world in developing a cutting-edge approach to decline by establishing a much inferior, dysfunctional administrative structure that has accelerated the movement of the horse business towards the edge of the cliff.
Simply put, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) has reached a new level of incompetence, prompting a groundswell of stakeholder voices that are now calling louder for a major structural overhaul before it is too late.
Just over a year ago, Chair of the TAB, Bill Birnie, and the Minister of Racing, Winston Peters, collaborated to appoint a TAB Advisory Committee consisting of Sir Peter Vela (Chair), Sir Brendon Lindsay, Ken Breckon, Greg Tomlinson, Chris Waller and Mark Chittick.
The committee was formed to identify emerging industry problems and recommend to the various bodies what should be done to fix them. NZTR was their biggest problem a year ago, but it’s a far bigger problem now, and they have obviously concluded that the fix needs to be drastic.
The Advisory Committee has no official power, but…
This Advisory Committee has no official power under the legislation, the very reason it was described as an Advisory Committee, but when you are the heavyweights of the industry, and all have massive investments in its future, you only need the ear of the Minister and the Chair of the TAB to start moving mountains.
Things began to heat up in March this year when the Committee wrote a letter to the Members’ Council, which is responsible for appointing the board at NZTR. The letter was marked ‘Private & Confidential’, but mysteriously, it fell off the back of a truck and landed on my desk soon after it was written. At the time, I totally agreed with it and decided not to divulge its contents on this forum.
But because of the present impasse between the Committee and NZTR, which will affect everyone in racing, it is appropriate to provide insight into its contents. In part, it says:
“The Advisory Committee has concluded that the current operating model of the New Zealand racing industry is unlikely to remain sustainable beyond the 2027/28 guaranteed funding period without coordinated structural reform. The recommendation paper sets out a reform framework intended to address persistent issues that have not been resolved through incremental or voluntary measures, including fragmented governance, duplicated administration, an over-extended venue footprint, and structurally stranded capital.”
A damning conclusion of NZTR by the AC
The letter goes on to be highly critical of NZTR in a number of areas, and then concludes: “In each of these areas, the Advisory Committee’s conclusion is the same: the gap between stated objectives and achievable outcomes is structural, not operational. Absent reform, repetition of these objectives in future SOIs will not change the underlying capacity to deliver them.”
The Committee sent the letter to the Members’ Council because it is officially the NZTR board’s guardian of accountability, although in reality, the Members’ Council has been a weak organisation with a history of appointing weak people to important roles and never holding anyone accountable.
At around the time of the letter, or even before, the Advisory Committee invited the Board of NZTR to tender their resignations en masse – an offer they surprisingly failed to embrace.
Today, the situation is much worse because TAB NZ is withholding all funding for the 2026-27 season. In other years, the funding would normally have been announced a month ago for the new season – this is the funding for stakes, to run the clubs and everything else that’s required for a full racing season.
Unless clubs have certainty about stakes and club funding by the end of June at the latest, it will be irresponsible for them to commit themselves for the first three months of the new season, not knowing whether funding will be forthcoming, if indeed it turns up at all – as threatened.
NZ racing is living well beyond its means
There is an ultimatum on the board table at NZTR – they need to address it very quickly. Should the board resign, it’s believed a new board appointed by the Advisory Committee would take over to completely revolutionise the structure of NZ Racing.
That may not be acceptable to a broad section of racing stakeholders, as it’s an unknown plan going forward, but it’s ‘Hobson’s Choice’ because the current regime is not a sustainable option.
New Zealand racing has been living well beyond its means for a long time, and it simply cannot continue. In an age that’s become tougher for the grassroots people of racing to stay in the game, with a continuing contraction of foal crops, stallions, racecourses, field sizes, fewer races, clubs, trainers, owners and racecourse attendances, why has the cost of NZTR administration ballooned?
Racing today is all about an ageing demographic and a lack of engagement from Gen Z (Zoomers) – not to be confused with us Boomers!
The 2015-16 Annual Report showed that without stakes and club funding, NZTR’s operating costs were $8.4m; by 2024-25, they had risen to $20.4m. Under Ballesty’s first full year in the 2025-26 year, the year-on-year figure is expected to be markedly higher again.
NZTR CEO Matt Ballesty now has seven GMs under his watch, most of whom are first-timers in racing administration. In the latest NZTR Stakeholders Monthly Report, under Key Matters/Team Update, he announced the addition of four new employees to the Marketing & Communications Division. Is there any end to this growing list of appointments?
The Racing Integrity Board (RIB) costs have followed a similar pattern. Ten years ago, the RIU cost $9m in the days when it was a division of NZTR. It received its autonomy as a board through the Racing Act of 2020, after which we have seen its cost soar. Today it costs $19m, and in the 2026-27 season, with Greyhound racing banned, its domestic race workload will be halved.
On June 1st, TAB NZ completed three of its five years of guaranteed funding on the 25-year agreement with Entain. The question is, is betting on thoroughbreds going well enough for New Zealand racing to fund itself adequately on half the gross turnover in year six after 2028? Not according to my research.
Sports betting has boomed over the past three years through intensive advertising, but betting on horses remains a major concern heading into 2028, with geo-blocking having hardly led to the increase expected prior to its introduction a year ago.
Entain’s arrival may have seemed like a great deal for racing at the time, with all the up-front 100s of millions of guaranteed dollars three-and-a-half years ago, when the deal was signed up at super-fast speed by the then Minister of Racing, Kieran McAnulty.
TAB NZ was broke at the time and had no choice but to outsource, but did the upfront windfall blindside the post-guarantee seasons from 2028? The gloss has now disappeared as the honeymoon nears completion and the cold, hard light of day of TAB turnover is contemplated.
Entain has applied for three of the 15 online casino licenses, with announcements expected in the future. Another question is: how thin will the NZ betting dollar be spread again when those licenses are allocated, and racing is dealt another diversion from its current customer base?